(Lanka-e-News - 26.Feb.2018, 7.45PM) The cabinet reshuffle of the UNP faction alone of the consensual government took place on the 25 th . However there was something queer and intriguing about the changes made in relation to ministries of Lakshman Kiriella and Kabir Hashim.

When Lakshman Kiriella was the minister of Highways prior to the reshuffle , Chathurika Sirisena could not secure the Ratnapura Highways contract . In addition, the Access Co. enjoying the patronage of president was also rightly deprived of the opportunity of securing the Kandy Dambulla Highway contract . Since , the venally inclined family of Sirisena lost their illicit commissions they were aiming at thereby, and were therefore offended , this ministerial change was effected, based on reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division

The illicit commission bulk Sirisena expected first and foremost was from Kandy –Dambulla expressway construction. Initially he therefore requested to hand over the contract to Polonnaruwa Udanaya project .Sirisena’s eagerness for illicit earnings outran his sureness so much so that he did not even consider the wide difference between Dambulla and Polonnaruwa even geographically . Kiriella and Ranil too remained silent because they didn’t wish to tread on the toes of Sirisena the president (or because they knew he is a Sillysena ? ). Sirisena meanwhile promoted one contractor only , and that was Access Co.

Sirisena’s aim and objective was to promote Access Co. as the only contractor and entrust the contract to them .However Ranil and Kiriella disagreed when it was attempted to hand over the Highway construction contract to a single local contractor after calling estimates from the single Co.

However finally , in order not to offend Sirisena since he is the president of the country , it was felt negotiations shall be started with Sirisena’s Access Co. which was rejected earlier.

Nevertheless , in the end , the engineering management of Highways Authority asserted , there is a national plan for construction of expressways , and based on that , the construction of Kandy-Dambulla expressway where there isn’t a traffic congestion cannot be given precedence. Besides, the government didn’t have the funds to disburse for this expressway .

Sirisena the highest in the hierarchy and the monarch of all what he surveys ,then proposed to get the contract moved to Polonnaruwa Udanaya , but he was not talented enough despite being a State leader to raise funds .Consequently the proposed Kandy –Dambulla expressway was relegated to oblivion. The illicit commission the Sirisena family was earnestly anticipating also ebbed away to their disappointment.

Next , the Sirisenas fixed their gaze on Colombo-Ratnapura expressway for their illicit commission bonanza. The hidden agent of Chaturika Sirisena was Shandong , a Chinese Co. which was the local representative . They submitted their estimate . Chaturika of course did not get directly involved in these transactions , instead put forward Ramesh Chandrasiri as the local representative of the Chinese Co.

The Chaturika –Shandong proposal was a BOT proposal , that is Build-Operate –Transfer. Under this , after Shandong Co. constructs the expressway , the same Co. will be managing it, and many years later after the Co. has recovered its investment ,ownership of the expressway will be transferred to SL.

Though no funds of the SL government will be disbursed , yet it is a requirement estimate submitted under the BOT shall be reasonable.

Unbelievably , the estimate submitted by Chaturika-Shandong Co . in respect of the Ratnapura expressway was four fold more than the actual estimation. In the circumstances the Engineering Board of the Highways Authority had frowned upon it , and rejected it. This was based on the justifiable grounds since this unbearable burden following the huge involvement - four fold more than the actual cost of the project finally has to be shouldered by the people ( not by Sirisenas) ultimately.

The actual reason for this fourfold increase in cost was the clandestine commission component – huge illicit payments to the intermediaries. Though president Maithripala’s full patronage was there , and the project was to be given to Shandong Co. promoted by his daughter , yet that attempt flopped with the Shandong proposal getting rejected on valid grounds in the best interests of the country disregarding the ulterior motives of Sirisenas. Consequently the Ratnapura expressway construction is now suspended.

The final outcome of all these villainous attempts and flops of Sirisenas was , their harboring a deep grudge against minister Lakshman Kiriella in charge of Highways . In keeping with the dastardly habit of Sirisena , what the latter did was , used Kili Maharaja’s mahajara ( foul smelling and filthy) Sirasa channel to viciously and venomously sling mud at Kirella.

Surely the public would have in the recent past noticed that .But what they would not have noticed was : Sirasa was carrying out an underhand contract of no lesser a person than Sirisena who was smarting over his failed attempts .

That being the truth and nothing but the truth of the episode , if anybody who is having doubts about this is wishing to verify the veracity of this report , the details can be obtained from the Highways Authority under the Right to information Act. Though we deem these facts must be exposed in the national interests , what is beyond our comprehension is , why the UNP is still shielding and safeguarding the president the culprit. Could that be because of the consensus reached as regards the post of P.M. ?

No matter what , presumably the cabinet reshuffle was done without giving precedence to the needs and interests of the people , owing to these reasons. Because Sirisena assumes that his illicit commission collection is being deprived by Kiriella and has hit him below the belt , Sirisena is averse to Kiriella holding the Highways ministry portfolio. In any case , in order just to please the UNP , the president had to change both -the ministry of Kiriella and that of Kabir Hashim.

At any rate , the people having already envisaged the portentous and perilous journey of the government had issued an alert signal DDKO - ‘ Danger of death – keep off’. Sadly , at the cabinet reshuffle yesterday however , there was no indication that the danger alert had been duly understood . If the people’s DDKO alert is not understood , it is doom and gloom looming over the country ‘s future .